ST Cryptic No 2473 – Hints

Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2473

Selected hints by Big Dave

+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – +

BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****

At last, a Sunday puzzle that didn’t leave me feeling disappointed.  Only one clue where I was  less than 100% sure of the wordplay, which is pretty good for me on a Sunday.

For the weekend prize crosswords I will select a few of the better clues and provide hints for them.  A full analysis of this puzzle will be available at 12.00 next Thursday,  March 5th.

Some hints to get you started:

Across

7a Well dressed as a baby girl will be (2,3,4)
A nice easy one to start with – she is unlikely to be in blue!!

8a What’s this I see? Blast! A hole! (5)
An interjection similar to blast! then the usual hole found in crosswords gives another interjection that seemed at one time to be the first three words to be spoken by every policeman on film and television

17a Food is something you can’t live without (5)
A double definition – a type of food that includes peas and beans; something we all have

Down

2d It facilitates entry into Oxford (8)
Once again, old-fashioned terms live on in crosswords – Oxford can describe a shirt or, as here, a type of footwear

15d Ploy to start organising a really big rising (9)
My favourite clue – an anagram (organising) followed by a synonym for really big, reversed (rising) gives a ploy

Don’t forget the full review next Thursday.